"For last year's words belong to last year's language, and next year's words await another voice"

My final post here is done for the benefit of future interns. In my final hours at esente as a design and marketing intern, I reflect. I reflect on good times and tough times; on challenges and accomplishments. If you try to sum up the whole experience in one word, you may find it difficult, and here's why: variety. Unlike most internships, and even a good deal of careers, there is very little monotony in a day as an esente intern. Think of each day almost as more of a new project, rather than a day at work. Coming in every day you are tasked with something different. Now, to be realistic, there are still certainly repetitive tasks, as there are with any job, but the main project each day, the meat of the internship, is a new and fresh task you are offered. Whether it be drafting press releases, coordinating email blasts, collaborating on marketing strategy, or simply designing posters and CD covers, each project is new and different!

Here's the boil down of it all. If you're like me, you're looking up this company all over the internet, You saw an ad for the internship on LinkedIn, or Monster, or Craiglist, etc.. and said "well this *sounds* interesting, but is it legit?" You're not wrong in asking that either, take my word on it. I have the unique perspective of having spent a couple years working out of college before doing this internship, and I've been caught in a few scam/dud jobs over that time. There is always the risk of something sketchy with an internship, simply because it is Free. Work. That's what it simplifies to. An internship is an opportunity for a company to hire part time workers for free! Now that's half of the story, the other half being that YOU as the worker are gaining experience, work hours, job knowledge, training, advice and insight from peers and seniors, etc...

BUT

You won't get any of that if you don't seek it out. If you apply for this internship, or any internship and say "awesome, I get to go in for 8 hrs, 3 times a week, and just hang out" then that's what you're going to do, and 8 weeks later you'll leave and have gained nothing. Or you can go in every day, take that new task they give you, and run with it. You do that, and you're golden. From the 8 weeks I was here, I can now say that I've done everything that a professional designer or marketing associate would do! I can put that on my resume, tell future employers, build on those skills, create a career out of it.

That's the secret to being an esente intern, and to being any intern. Take what you're given and run with it. Make it your own and it will benefit you forever.

With my final paragraph as an intern, I want to thank the Esente group, Ron, Laura, Kayleigh, and all the amazing interns I got to work with this summer. You are all inspiring, and I am going to cherish this experience forever. Best of luck in all your future endeavors and hopefully we'll all be working together again, as career marketers, designers, and PR professionals. To all of you new interns coming in or considering this, best of luck to you as well, and give this place a shot. You won't regret it.


Signing off,

Mike D
Design Intern